Home
by AnimeWolfGirl9
Summary: The night of the plague brings more than one realization to the children of the Hyakuya orphanage. Mika, however, takes comfort in the fact that they are still together.


**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/places from Seraph of the End and everything belongs to its respective owners.**

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Home

The children had been herded through the streets, away from the corpses and wreckage that the plague had brought. Mika had made sure to keep the eight of them from the Hyakuya orphanage together as best as he could. Robed figures flanked them on all sides, led by a single figure with long pink hair.

He hadn't bothered to ask questions at the time; all that mattered was that everyone was safe. He would deal with the details later, when they got to where they were going. There had been an announcement: the vampires were offering the children their protection. In exchange, they would offer their blood.

 _We really have no other choice, do we?_ The orphan looked around at the other smaller groups of children being herded with them several feet away. _Not if everyone is going to come out of this alright._

Everyone was silent, though whether it was from fear or something else, the blonde wasn't quite sure. The other orphans kept glancing at him from time to time, worry and confusion in their eyes, while Yu had a conflicted look on his face. Thankfully the other boy hadn't thought to do anything reckless at the moment though.

They came to a tunnel system which led under the ground. Some children were hesitant to enter, causing unnecessary force to be used. Mika learned from the examples and moved forward, making sure that everyone was still with him. The tunnels led into an underground city that looked as though it could fit thousands of people. More robed figures stood still, guarding the narrow alleyways that branched through the city.

Mika knew that if they would have escaped, then it should have been outside. How would they have even survived though? Everyone else was…

The pink-haired figure had disappeared when they entered the city, but it was clear that they were all heading towards a single direction: a large building in the city. For what purpose, he wasn't told.

His thoughts were given free reign for a moment, making him wonder what would happen to them. The vampires said that they would protect them, but they had to donate blood to do so. Whatever the outcome would be, it wouldn't be pleasant.

 _There has to be something good that can come out of this,_ he thought, holding onto the hope that they would all be alright, that their family could still be together.

They were herded into even tighter groups as they entered the building, where instructions were quickly given: they would state their names and give a small drop of blood for identification. They were stripped of their regular clothing and given white pants and a hoodie. It almost felt wrong; like they were being treated as though they could be unimportant.

The small knife that was used to get a drop of blood from them was cleaned with a cloth after each cut, but it was already becoming bloodied. He wondered how many other children had been through this before them.

"Hyakuya Mikaela," he stated his name, not sure of whether to use a proper introduction or honorifics. Since he was unsure, he didn't. Afterwards, he received a small nametag that he had to wear at all times, with the instructions that the donation would take place in the morning.

Waiting for the others to get done had been hard. He knew that some of the other children wouldn't understand as much as he did; he barely knew anything as it was. He just figured that this would be where they would stay for now.

"Does anyone know where we will be staying?" Mika asked in a soft tone as they left the building, all eight of them once again in a snug group. The younger children were holding the cut they had received against their shirt, so he made a note to try and find some gauze or a Band-Aid once they had settled in.

"They didn't say anything about it to me," Akane answered, sounding stressed. They had all gotten used to the orphanage and being told what to do, but now they had no directions other than the donation in the morning…

"I'll ask someone," he quickly volunteered, leaving the group to walk over to one of the cloaked figures. Red eyes stared back at him, devoid of any emotion other than disgust. He was almost second-guessing asking, but they needed to know something. "Excuse me; do you know where we are supposed to-?"

His question was cut off as something slammed into him, sending him backwards a few feet and harshly onto the ground. His chest ached for a moment, probably where the figure had hit him. Someone's hands partially caught him and helped him sit up: Yu's hands. The boy had a hurt and angry expression on his face as the figures walked away without saying a word.

"Bloodsuckers," Yu muttered with hate as he helped Mika up. Obviously they weren't going to get any help from their new protectors. _But if that's the case, what are they protecting us from?_

"Are you alright, Mika?" Akane and the younger children had joined them; some shouting "Mika-nii" in small, worried voices while others looked frightened again. He did the best he could to give them a smile.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he led them into one of the alleys, figuring that they should start looking for a place to stay regardless. "Let's keep looking."

The alley that Mika had led them down was strangely empty. He didn't know where any of the other children that had been herded here had gone, but he hoped that they were safe. After a few more minutes of walking, they eventually came to what looked like a house. Others were lined in a row, but all of the lights were off.

"We can look here," he cautiously opened the door to the house, seeing that it wasn't locked. If their protectors didn't want them to go into the house, they would have locked it, right? And they would get told if they weren't allowed to go into the house, so it should be alright.

The inside was pretty bare in terms of furniture, but it was big compared to what they were used to. There was a bathroom with a toilet, a kitchen with some bare necessities, a table with some chairs, and a cot large enough for them to all share. The only light they had came from a sole lamp hanging above the table. It was a place to stay, and for that, Mika was grateful.

"What do you think?" the question seemed to be asked silently by everyone in the room while they stared at him, looking for an answer. He technically was the leader, after all.

"I think it will be a good new home," he said with a smile, finding at least one bright spot in all they had endured, "we'll all be able to be safe, so no one will have to worry."

Later that night as everyone else was fast asleep on the cot, Mika smiled again as he caught glimpses of the building; yes, it would be their new home. Even if they were forced from this place, they would always be home if they had each other.

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This one is slightly shorter than the others and I sort of made a few things up (I've only seen about… four episodes of the anime, which I think is all they have, so I haven't read the manga yet). Sorry if anything is conflicting with any known information of a similar event if it's happened. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!

-AnimeWolfGirl9


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